Dallas mother charged with endangerment after 3-year-old son was fatally shot
The mother of a 3-year-old boy from Dallas is now facing charges after her son was fatally shot in the head Monday morning.
Lacravivonne Washington, 26, was charged Wednesday with endangering a child, “due to the fact a weapon was accessible to a child,” a news release from Dallas police said. Washington was taken to police headquarters to be interviewed about her son’s death, and she “declined to speak further to detectives and was transported to the Dallas County Jail for (other) outstanding warrants,” the release added.
KXAS-TV reported that Washington’s outstanding warrants were out of Carrollton related to a speeding ticket and failure to use a child safety seat.
On Monday morning, a local hospital contacted the police department and reported that 3-year-old Jalexus, suffering from a gunshot wound to the face, was brought to the emergency room.
Washington told police that the shooting was connected to a road rage incident near Whitehurst and Arbor Park, but police said they did not find a “legitimate crime scene or evidence related to a road rage incident.”
According to a warrant obtained by KXAS, Washington told police that she had left a business Monday morning with her three children, all of whom are between the ages of 2 and 4. The three children reportedly were unrestrained in the car.
Police said, in their preliminary investigation, that Washington and her 3-year-old son were seen at a doughnut shop located at 9410 Walnut Street just 20 minutes before the boy was taken to the hospital and died from his injuries.
Washington told police that a driver had followed her vehicle and that she pulled into a nearby neighborhood in an attempt to lose the person, according to the warrant.
“She said she parked next to Forest Meadows Park and that as she was getting her children out of the car the driver returned and shot at them, striking her son,” the NBC station reported. “Police said Washington signed a consent form at the hospital allowing police to search her vehicle for evidence. They said she stated there were no firearms in the vehicle, but while searching the vehicle for evidence of the road rage incident police found a handgun in the glove compartment.”
NBC also reported that the boy’s autopsy said “there was un-burned gunpowder residue on the boy’s body, indicating the gunshot that killed him came from close proximity and ruling out his being shot by someone in a passing vehicle.”
Police are investigating what happened between the time the family left the doughnut shop and when they arrived at the hospital, WFAA-TV reported.
Anyone who saw Washington’s car — a 2011 dark blue Subaru Legacy with paper tags — is asked to call police at 214-671-3675.
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 12:39 PM.
